Creating and effacing differences in speeches on unemployment

Abstract

In this article, what makes politicians' talk 'political' is examined. It is suggested that the political refers to actions that involve disputes and struggles over competing ideas, interests, andgoals. In order to examine the political quality of politicians' talk, the thematic, syntactic, and lexical content ofthree Speeches given by politicians ofthe European Commission on the topic of unemployment was analyzed. It wasfound that the Speakers used a variety ofdtscursive resources to portray a struggle between the competing perspectives of the European Commission and those in Opposition to the Commission's policies. The struggle consisted of the Speakers' discursive practices that emphasized (politicization) and minimized differences (depoliticization) between opposing groups. It is argued that this interplay between the emphasis and effacement of differences played a major r öle in making these textspolitical. Ofparticular importance was the Speakers' use of conßdence terms to create consensus and block alternatives.

News from the pit: Journalistic performativity and discourse on Belgian internment policy

“…Although 'de/politicisation' has previously been used as an analytical category in political discourse analysis (e.g.Okulska & Cap: 2010;Muntigl: 1999;Krzyżanowski: 2017), media research (e.g Ylönen et al: 2015). of de/politicisation as discursive practice remains scarce.…”